Share This Story!

For health care woes, Louisiana governors prescribes confusion

You should not drive or operate heavy machinery while attempting to understand the health care decisions made in recent years by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration. Nor should you mix the resulting news coverage with alcohol (actually, that might not be a terrible idea). Side effects may include headaches, feelings of despair, confusion, outrage or dizziness.

For health care woes, Louisiana governors prescribes confusion

You should not drive or operate heavy machinery while attempting to understand the health care decisions made in recent years by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration. Nor should you mix the resulting news coverage with alcohol (actually, that might not be a terrible idea). Side effects may include headaches, feelings of despair, confusion, outrage or dizziness.

If these side effects persist, seek immediate care. Just be careful where you seek it. Hospital officials last week announced a November closure for the Baton Rouge General’s Mid-City emergency room. That was before the state swooped in with an unexpected cash infusion of $7.2 million, which, when coupled with a federal match, means $18 million. The state saved the day — for now.

The emergency room is hemorrhaging $1 million per month, due to an average increase of 400 patients. All of the new patients are uninsured, driven there by the administration’s decision to close down the nearby Earl K. Long Medical Center as part of the governor’s hospital privatization plan. Other once-public hospitals around the state are now being privately managed, but the situation in Baton Rouge could pave the way for more unintended cash infusions if the long-term solution of diverting patients elsewhere flatlines.

The latest side effects from the health care agenda prescribed by Jindal’s administration may also prove costly for some. Especially if you’re among the 230,000 members of the state’s Group Benefits program, for which greater out-of-pocket expenses are anticipated. Critics, like Treasurer John Kennedy, argue the administration has treated the program’s reserves like a rainy day fund, reducing it by $176 million last fiscal year. It held $237 million as of June 30 and could be down to zero, according to Kennedy, by next year.

Administration officials say that’s hogwash, as program participants like state workers, retirees and dependents prepare for higher deductibles and limitations on health care services. The goal is to stop the bleeding from a $16 million monthly burn rate and to raise $1 billion over a five-year period. Some in the program, now managed by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, complain they’re having to pay for the administration’s mismanagement.

If all of this weren’t enough to increase your risk for cardiac arrest, the state legislative auditor is raising serious questions about Jindal’s privatization of Medicaid services through the Bayou Health program, which primarily covers pregnant women and children. Auditors doubt the savings that have been touted thus far and found "mathematical errors and inconsistencies" in a performance report that was prepared for lawmakers by the administration.

Also still lingering like a bad cold is a federal grand jury investigation, launched last year, into a supposedly low-balled $200 million contract awarded to CNSI for Medicaid claims processing. Former state health and hospitals secretary Bruce Greenstein was vice president of the company in the mid 1990s but denied any wrongdoing before he resigned in 2013. The investigation has since turned quiet.

But if we were to triage all of the administration’s health care-related woes, the privatization of Louisiana’s public hospitals would move to the front of the line. The final decision from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the state's revamped hospital privatization plan, which was initially rejected earlier this year, was expected last month. But the feds have "stopped the clock" as they seek more information on the financial structure of the deals struck with the private managers.

As the feds dig deeper, the arrangement for the now-private hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe is being sullied by a $25 million overdue payment. LSU contends the Biomedical Research Foundation owes the cash, while the foundation is accusing the university of mismanaging the clinics before the transfer took place, with irregular scheduling practices being alleged.

It seems like all of Jindal’s health care initiatives were sold as a panacea for rising costs, access to services and much more. But so far they’ve only caused a litany of side effects, which makes the administration look like it’s spinning plates and all of the rods are tilting.

It also makes the wonk-wonder appeal of Jindal, a self-professed health care expert, vulnerable to attacks on the presidential campaign circuit. For him, that may be the most bitter pill of all, but back home in Louisiana it’s literally becoming a case of life and death as patients and physicians navigate his creation.

— Jeremy Alford is the publisher of LaPolitics Weekly and LaPolitics.com. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com